Technology Crisis at Albany High School

This morning ARISE (A Regional Initiative Supporting Empowerment), the Albany African American Clergy United for Empowerment, the West Hill Ministers Fellowship and the Interdenominational Ministers Conference all met with the very new principal of Albany, Dr. David C. McCalla. Dr. McCalla was shocked to see the state of technology at the school. This fall they had only 10 video projectors used to project Power Point slides for 120 classrooms. He was alsosurprised to find no “SMART Boards” in the entire building. Technology in the classroom has not been a priority of the schools of recent administrations for the school. Dr. McCalla believes this is a high priority, particularly as his teachers are preparing students to compete in a world where they will need to be skilled in the use of technology to get the good jobs.

I’ve never seen a SMART Board (can you guess I’m over 30?) in a classroom setting. The same was true of the 30 ministers gathered for this presentation. Mr. Lloyd Peck, North House Principal, gave us a demonstration. As such a product can best understood using pictures, I brought my video camera and recorded the demo. I uploaded it to YouTube and you can watch it below if your interested.

What we plan to do is ask our congregations to buy a few of these by raising funds in our congregations. We want to show the Mayor of Albany and the School Board that we think this is a priority for our High School at the minimum. I encourage you to take a look at the video. If you are impressed with this as a teaching aid, I encourage your support of the fund raising efforts in your religious organizations or directly through the Albany High School. (Instructions are at the end of the video).